All Rise...

The Charge

The not-so-classic story of pimp meets girl.

Opening Statement

I wanted to like Bad Guy, but now that I'm finished I just feel like I
need a shower. It is stark and hideously beautiful, but I simply couldn't get
past the nature of the story. Life Size Entertainment has released the film on a
solid DVD, so you can decide for yourself whether it's art or misogynistic
crap.

Facts of the Case

Hang-ki (Jae-hyeon Jo, The Isle), a mute pimp, crosses the path of a
pretty college girl and roughly kisses her. Sun-hwa (Won Seo, The Isle)
is unimpressed and tries to force him to apologize publicly.

He does not.

Instead, he manipulates her into a life of prostitution, watching her
descent into the life through a one-way mirror in her room. She gradually
adjusts to her new life, as he struggles to survive the violence of the streets.
Gradually, she comes to depend on the life and on him as they form a strange
bond.

The Evidence

It's interesting to chart the development of Kim Ki-duk as a director. He
first gained international attention with The Isle, an unpleasant film
about obsession made famous because it had critics scrambling for the exits and
reaching for the barf bags during several graphic self-mutilation scenes.
Several years later, he made Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and
Spring and Samaritan Girl, both
carrying on the themes of sexual obsession, but giving his characters a chance
for redemption. Bad Guy has an odd place between these groups of films,
and isn't likely to appeal to many viewers.

Which isn't to say Bad Guy is without merit. In fact, it's
brilliantly designed, with murky ideology submerged in a grisly, dark setting.
When Sun-hwa is dragged into her life of prostitution, she is also brought into
a world that operates under completely different rules. She has her place in the
local hierarchy and so does Hang-ki. He destroys her and then recreates her, and
although she never comes to enjoy her new life, she begins to put on the costume
and live out her role. She is introduced to the underworld of sex, which is
never about affection but is often about power or money.

Kim Ki-duk claims that this film is about the class inequalities in Korea.
Few people ever see the failed lives that play out in the underworld, and all we
truly understand of them is in the simple representations of films. A film
either shows these characters as darkly evil, or else creates them as sad
victims of unfortunate circumstances, only acting wrong because they have never
known better. If nothing else, Bad Guy allows its characters to be fully
evil but also distinctly human, and we are forced to take this perspective. We
often witness Sun-hwa's new life through Han-ki's eyes, watching her misery with
the reflection of his dull stare filling the screen. Whether we have any
sympathy for him or not, we must become him as we watch the film.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Unfortunately, the film ultimately fails to create this world for the
audience. Hang-ki is, after all, a very bad guy, and his actions can't be
justified or explained away. He doesn't deserve our sympathy, and he definitely
doesn't deserve our support. The rules of the world also begin to break down.
What starts as a gritty, realistic depiction of the red light district soon
breaks down as Hang-ki survives several fatal injuries, and a bizarre,
unexplained lapse in space-time is introduced. By the end of the film,
everything has become so symbolic that it's no longer clear what any of it is
supposed to represent.

Sun-hwa's character is not as developed as Hang-ki's. Bad Guy is
distinctly misogynistic, never allowing her to become more than an object. In
the first scene, the camera lingers over her, following Hang-ki's gaze. In the
end, we know precious little more about her, simply that she has developed
affection for her captor, and has accepted her role as his prostitute. Why does
she choose to stay in this horrible life? We don't get to find out. Perhaps we
aren't supposed to understand. After all, she is now part of this other world
that operates with completely different rules.

But I don't buy that. It may be true that in Korea's red light district,
some women have been torn from their lives for so long that they accept their
lives as prostitutes. But that doesn't make it acceptable. Watching Sun-hwa
forced into this life against her will, abused physically, mentally, and
sexually, is something that I can't forgive by the end of the movie. These
scenes are horrible to watch, and Hang-ki does nothing to deserve any kind of
redemption. At the end, he is still a pimp, he has still destroyed her life, and
he still owns her in a way that repulses me.

The disc is well-produced, with a clean anamorphic video transfer that has
little noticeable dirt. The sound is solid as well, with the choice between a
stereo track and a surround track that adds the slightest amount of depth. In
either case, the music is mixed well with the dialogue and ambient noise. There
are a few extras, the most valuable being an interview with Kim Ki-duk, which
almost explains what he was trying to accomplish with Bad Guy. There is
also a production featurette, which seems more like a music video and a photo
gallery. The theatrical trailer is also included.

Closing Statement

If you are looking for a harrowing and controversial film experience, Bad
Guy may be an appealing choice. I'm sure there are others who are able to
view it as a love story, and some who would argue that some of my accusations
here are unfair. There are others who would not be able to see any value in it
at all, though, instead finding it repulsive, cruel and pointless. Either way,
it's by far the weakest of Kim Ki-duk's films I have seen to date.

The Verdict

Even Kim Ki-duk doesn't have immunity in my courtroom. Bad Guy is
guilty.